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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29054856">The Resurrection</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahkwut/pseuds/sarahkwut'>sarahkwut</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018), Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018) RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, F/F, F/M, Family, Fix-It, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Hurt, Love, Lovers, M/M, Resurrection, friends - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:22:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,341</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29054856</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahkwut/pseuds/sarahkwut</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Hecate hears the prayers of her coven and brings Sabrina back to her loved ones. This is their reunion. </p><p>A Part 4 Fix-It.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nicholas Scratch/Sabrina Spellman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>117</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Resurrection</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I couldn't let Part 4 end like that, at least not in my head. So I wrote this. It's got a bit of everything. I cried. I laughed. There's hurt and grief. A lot of fluff. A rather risque scene. </p><p>But mostly, there's a whole lot of love. &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Sweet Hereafter was rather boring.</p><p>The artwork was pretty and the books all fictional tales of wonder, but there wasn’t another living being to be had, not even a plant. In fact, it reminded her a lot of The Void, what with all its vastness and white space. She had no idea how long she had been there – long enough to read a few books because there was nothing else to do – but she was uncertain as to how she was going to survive eternity in this too white, too quiet place. She supposed that was her penance – to be forced to be alone when her family and friends in the mortal realm had been such an integral part of what made her <em>her.</em></p><p>Her chest went hollow as she thought of them.</p><p>She tried not to think of her aunts, Ambrose, of Nick, her friends. It hurt too much and if she thought of them, she would begin to imagine how they were doing, what they were doing, how they were moving on without her. That was something she couldn’t bear to think about. She supposed it was penance, too, to have to miss her family and friends in a way that caused her physical pain. She had thought wherever she would end up, they would be far from her mind, that she would either be deliriously happy or tortured for what she was in her living life. But it turned out being separated from those she loved and thinking of them constantly was torture of the worst kind.</p><p>She turned the page in her book.</p><p>“This seat taken?”</p><p>She gasped and spun around on her bench.</p><p>“Hecate?” she questioned as she took in the goddess. “What are you doing here?”</p><p>Hecate was far more beautiful than any depiction Sabrina had ever seen of her. She wore a stunning red dress that flowed around her. Her long dark hair tumbled over one shoulder and was held in place by an elaborate brooch. A golden crown depicting her three moons perched atop her head. She radiated warmth and, dare Sabrina believe it, kindness. The goddess smiled as she sat down next to Sabrina with a grace that reminded Sabrina of Prudence.</p><p>“Bit boring here, isn’t it?” she asked.</p><p>“It’s – plain,” Sabrina said diplomatically. She tapped her knee. “Great boots, though.”</p><p>“I suppose it’s a good thing you’re not going to be here much longer then, isn’t it?” Hecate continued.</p><p>Sabrina sighed. So this place had been a purgatory of sorts. She was now being sent to her soul’s final resting place, the realm she would reside in for the rest of eternity.</p><p>“What’s it going to be?” she asked. “Surely not Heaven nor Hell…”</p><p>“How does Earth sound?” Hecate countered.</p><p>Sabrina’s eyes grew big.</p><p>“The mortal realm? Am I to be a ghost?” Being a ghost, living amongst her loved ones but not being able to truly be a part of them, was even more of a torturous thought than being without them for eternity.</p><p>Hecate’s responding chuckle was gentle.</p><p>“No, dear child,” she shook her head. “It’s not time for you to be here, yet. You have many hundreds of years before you’re due here.”</p><p>“I don’t understand,” Sabrina said with a crinkled nose. She had no idea what was going on. She was dead and currently residing in some place called the Sweet Hereafter with what now sounded like plans to move on to some other realm.</p><p>“I’m sending you home,” Hecate said simply. “To your family, your friends.” She gave another sly smile. “Your warlock.”</p><p>“But…” she stuttered, “I’m dead…”</p><p>“Momentarily,” Hecate nodded. “I’m so very sorry it took me so long to find you, dear one. Your dual nature and the blurry gray line you draw between good and evil made it quite difficult to track you down. In the end, it was your boyfriend’s necklace that helped me locate you.”</p><p>Sabrina’s hand flew to the locket she wore.</p><p>“I ventured through realm after realm, searching for you,” Hecate continued. “The mortals believe it’s as simple as Heaven and Hell, but we know better, don’t we?” She waited for Sabrina to nod. “I’m rusty to this whole having a coven worship me thing and quite frankly, I wasn’t prepared to receive even one of my followers, nor will I be for a very long time. Your sweet boyfriend kept using his locket to search for you. I think he may be the only soul on earth who hasn’t quite allowed themselves to believe you’re gone.”</p><p>“Nick has been trying to find me?” Sabrina asked. Her eyes water. It was a role reversal of sorts. She had stopped at nothing to find him in Hell. It seemed not even belief of her death would stop him from finding her in whatever iteration of the afterlife she had found herself in.</p><p>“He’s not very happy with me,” Hecate revealed. “His faith was already fragile, given what he’s been through, but for me to take the love of his life from him…” Hecate shook his head. “It will take him some time to come around. Same with your aunts, particularly Zelda, and your cousin, too. I’m hopeful your return will restore some of their faith in me.”</p><p>She seemed truly sorry that she had hurt the witches and warlocks that worshipped her so deeply.</p><p>“How long have I been gone from the mortal realm?” Sabrina dared to ask. Time didn’t seem to exist in the Sweet Hereafter.</p><p>“A week.” Sabrina sucked in a breath. Her family, her Nick, her friends had been grieving for her for a <em>week</em>. She couldn’t imagine what they had been through. “As I said, you were hard to find. It seems the realms weren’t quite sure what to do with you either. You’re not the typical witch, are you?”</p><p>“I suppose not,” Sabrina managed. She felt hope bubbling that this was happening, that she was going home. She tried to push it down, lest she be disappointed.</p><p>“I’m going to send you home,” Hecate said. “In fact, I’m going to escort you myself.”</p><p>“What’s the catch?” Sabrina was dubious that it could be this easy.</p><p>“The catch?” Hecate repeated.</p><p>“There is always a catch.”</p><p>Hecate shook her head, again with a bit of a smile.</p><p>“Not with me. I’m not like your former leader. I only require your loyalty, that you use your magic for a higher purpose. Things are going to be very different for you and your coven from now on, sweet Sabrina. You’re going to be happy. All of you. You have certainly all earned that.”</p><p>She took Sabrina’s hand.</p><p>Everything began to rush by in rapid flashes.</p><p>Her birth, her first birthday. Playing in the yard as a toddler, chasing Ambrose through the mortuary over the last of Hilda’s homemade popsicles. Meeting Roz for the first time, and then Theo, Harvey. Her first date with Harvey, her first kiss, the first time she met Nick, their first kiss. The moment Nick woke up in her bed fresh from Hell, their first time in the hours before she attempted to merge.</p><p>Their last kiss before she was supposedly gone forever.</p><p>His promise to see her on the other side.</p><p>Her, whispering his name three times as she faded away.</p><p>But then, there was more.</p><p>Things that hadn’t happened yet.</p><p>Her family, celebrating Winter Solstice.</p><p>Ambrose and Prudence bickering over a board game in a house she didn’t recognize.</p><p>She and Roz, laughing heartily as they walked along the Greendale streets.</p><p>Her, Theo, and Robin, cheering Nick on at a wrestling match.</p><p>Nick, slipping a corsage on her wrist on prom night.</p><p>Her and Nick and the rest of the Fright Club at their high school graduation. Harvey had his arm slung around Nick’s shoulders and it seemed they were <em>friends.</em></p><p>College, another apartment she didn’t recognize but that she looked to share with Nick as they made dinner, both laughing as they worked.</p><p>Her wedding day, Nick waiting at the end of the aisle as her groom with a brilliant smile and wet eyes as he watched Zelda and Hilda escort her.</p><p>Nick, holding the hand of a toddler boy that looked an awful lot like him, his other arm wrapped around her as she cradled an infant girl.</p><p>Zelda and Hilda, a hair older in appearance, welcoming them to the mortuary with big smiles as Zelda took the baby and Hilda swept the toddler into her arms.</p><p>There was a resounding, thunderous crack.</p><p>Sabrina found herself being pushed up through layer upon layer of dirt. She gasped for breath the moment she broke through the surface and her lungs were filled with the most perfect fresh air. On her hands and knees, she focused only on breathing for a few moments as she spit out the dirt she had inhaled.</p><p>“Probably could have found a less messy way to do that,” Hecate commented. She herself was spotless. “Did the same to poor Hilda, didn’t I?”</p><p>Sabrina only had time to look up at her before the mortuary doors were thrown open.</p><p>“Who goes there?” Zelda bellowed. Vinegar Tom was at her heels, Hilda right behind her. Salem hopped up onto the railing.</p><p>Sabrina was a bit unsteady as she scrambled to her feet. Her body felt heavy, tired, weak.</p><p>Like it had been dead for a week.</p><p>“‘Tis I, Hecate,” Hecate announced. “I’m here to return Sabrina Spellman to her rightful realm.”</p><p>Time stood still as Zelda and Hilda stood side by side at the top of the porch stairs and took in the image of a filthy Sabrina, seemingly alive and well, standing in their yard next to Hecate herself.</p><p>“Sabrina…” Zelda whispered.</p><p>“Aunties.” Sabrina’s voice cracked. Tears sprang to her eyes. “Aunties! Salem!”</p><p>All at once, the aunts were there, pulling her into a messy tight hug as all three of them sobbed. Salem leapt onto her shoulder, perching precariously as he licked her face in greeting. Vinegar Tom bounced around their feet, barking with wild excitement. Sabrina couldn’t breathe, but she didn’t care. She had her aunts.</p><p>“How?” Zelda asked with a trembling voice. “How…”</p><p>“It wasn’t her time,” Hecate answered. The three Spellmans had forgotten she was there. “It was a bit difficult to find her to bring her back to you, but she’s here now, where she belongs.”</p><p>Zelda fell to her knees and bowed. Hilda rushed to do the same. Sabrina stood there awkwardly, not sure what she was supposed to do.</p><p>“Hecate… Praise you… Praise you…”</p><p>“None of that,” Hecate said in a gentle manner. She used magic to bring the aunts to their feet. “All I ask of you, of Sabrina, of your coven, is to serve me well. I do not wish to oversee this coven with a fist of iron or a request of dark devotion. Your magic is a gift. Use it as such.”</p><p>“Thank you,” Zelda praised. “Hecate, thank you, thank you…”</p><p>“Serve me well,” Hecate said. “Sabrina?” Sabrina looked to her goddess. “Live well, my child. Be happy. You have earned it.”</p><p>She faded away.</p><p>“This… Doesn’t seem real…” Hilda hugged Sabrina to her side. “Praise Hecate…”</p><p>“It’s all I prayed for,” Zelda said as she wrapped her arms around her sister and niece. “Day in and day out, I prayed for answers, for her to somehow, someway, bring you back. I was prepared to make a deal with Baron Samedi… This world without you…” Zelda’s eyes filled with tears. “It’s just not worth it!”</p><p>“I missed you so much,” Sabrina breathed. “Both of you. Wherever I was, the Sweet Hereafter, it wasn’t peaceful, not in the way one would think. All I could think about was those I left behind.” More tears streaked her cheeks. They mingled with the dirt from her resurrection causing muddy trickles to run down her features. “I can’t believe I’m here.”</p><p>“Nor can we,” Hilda said. “We shall praise Hecate for the rest of our days.”</p><p>“She has returned the two most important witches in my life to me,” Zelda said with a hint of wonder. “Her request to serve her well feels so easy. So simple.”</p><p>Sabrina couldn’t help but notice the absence of someone then.</p><p>“Where’s Ambrose?” she wondered. “Shouldn’t he be here?”</p><p>The aunts exchanged a sad look.</p><p>“Ambrose left, darling,” Hilda said gently.</p><p>“Left?” Sabrina questioned. “What do you mean, left?”</p><p>“The grief was too much,” Zelda explained. “He couldn’t face this house without you. It was overwhelming. We will summon him, get him back here as soon as we can. He has been a mess without you.”</p><p>“And Nick?” Sabrina continued. “Where is he? At the Academy?” Again, the aunts exchanged a look. “What?” she demanded. “What aren’t you telling me?”</p><p>“Nicholas isn’t doing well, darling.” Hilda was gentle in her delivery. “He has tried so hard not to fall into his old ways of coping. He knew that’s not what you would want, and he has made every effort to honor that. But losing you…” Hilda shook her head. “I knew he loved you, love, but I had no idea how deep that love went until I had to witness him mourn you.”</p><p>“Where is he?” Sabrina asked again as her brain raced through any number of scenarios in which Nick was spiraling out of control. There was panic in her voice. “I need to go to him…”</p><p>“He’s at the Academy right now,” Zelda assured her. She still hadn’t released Sabrina and Hilda and Hilda showed no signs of letting Sabrina go either. “I don’t know that he believed you were gone, not even after we held your funeral. He had so much faith in you, Sabrina. He truly believed you would wake up.” Zelda’s eyes watered once more at the memory. “He stayed here the first few nights. He slept in your bed. It felt right, to have him here.” Salem meowed. Zelda chuckled. “With Salem,” she added. “The pair have developed a bit of a bond in your absence.”</p><p>“I have to see him,” Sabrina said again. “His necklace helped Hecate find me…”</p><p>“How about we get you cleaned up first, hmm?” Hilda pitched. “You’re quite the mess.” She kissed Sabrina’s dirt-covered head. “Perhaps something to eat, too?”</p><p>Zelda snorted a hint of a laugh despite her heightened emotions.</p><p>“Of course Aunt Hilda is trying to feed you the moment you come back from the dead.”</p><p>Even Sabrina had to laugh a bit.</p><p>“I’ll get cleaned up,” she agreed. “Will you summon Ambrose?”</p><p>“Of course,” Zelda agreed.</p><p>With her aunts on either side of her, each with an arm around her, she ascended the steps to the mortuary.</p><p>She was alive, she told herself.</p><p>She was home.</p><hr/><p>The Academy felt heavy when she stepped through its doors. It was quiet, quieter than she had ever heard it. It was darker, too. Somber. The place was in mourning.</p><p>For her.</p><p>She breathed a steadying breath and anticipated the moment when her coven would find out she was alive. But they weren’t her concern right now. She had to get to Nick. It had taken her far longer than anticipated to scrub all the dirt away, and it hadn’t been easy to leave her aunts when they had just gotten her back, but her very gut told her she needed to get to Nick now. He couldn’t wait any longer.</p><p>The new statue in the entry caught her eye. She paused to take in herself, gold plated and shining. Flowers and candles were scattered around its base, a makeshift memorial to her.</p><p>“That’ll have to go,” she muttered under her breath.</p><p>She hurried up the stairs, heart pounding, stomach churning, anticipation rising. She had to see him. She had to feel his arms around her, his kiss on her lips. It was one thing to be enveloped by her aunts. It was another to be brought into Nick’s arms, to feel his heart beating against hers. It would prove to her that this was real, that she was truly and wholly alive once more.</p><p>She stopped at his door and took a big breath. She knocked softly, then tried the knob.</p><p>It was unlocked.</p><p>She stepped inside as her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting.</p><p>Her mouth fell into a soft “O.”</p><p>Nick was there, curled into a tight ball in his bed, much has he had been in the hours after Ambrose had cleaned him up and they had extracted the Dark Lord’s remnants.</p><p>But Prudence was there, too.</p><p>She sat in a chair by his bedside, one of her long legs bent, her arms wrapped around her knee as she watched over him. She turned her gaze towards Sabrina as the light from the hall broke through the darkness. Her eyes bulged. She sprang to her feet, as quiet and graceful as a cat.</p><p>“You!” she breathed.</p><p>“Prudence…” Sabrina took a couple of steps forward, but her eyes couldn’t help but stray to Nick.</p><p>“You’re a ghost!” Prudence exclaimed. “You can’t be here. He can’t take it…”</p><p>“I’m not a ghost,” Sabrina forced her eyes back to Prudence. She looked panicked. “It’s me, Prudence. I’m here.”</p><p>Prudence shook her head.</p><p>“No, impossible. I was there. You were gone. You were buried…”</p><p>Sabrina didn’t reply right away. She took Prudence’s hands in hers and squeezed.</p><p>“It’s me,” she said again, eyes holding Prudence’s. “I’m here. Hecate brought me back.”</p><p>Prudence’s eyes grew wider as the truth settled around her.</p><p>“Oh my… You… You’re here… How…”</p><p>“Hecate brought me back,” Sabrina repeated. “It’s a long story.” She dropped Prudence’s hands and gave her full attention to Nick. He was entirely out of it, knocked out cold yet somehow radiating tension, pain, grief. She ached to sooth his furrowed brow. “How is he?”</p><p>“Not good,” Prudence sighed. She had so many questions, but they could wait. “He was coping as well as to be expected for the first few days, but when he came back to the Academy and saw your statue for the first time…” She trailed off and shook her head. “It was as though he realized you were truly gone. He broke, Sabrina. He went for a swim in the Sea of Sorrows painting at Dorian’s, and I barely pulled him out of the undertow in time.” Sabrina’s eyes watered at the idea that Nick had tried to end his life. “He was so distraught, angry at me for bringing him back. He tried to go back into the painting. I had no choice but to knock him out to get him back here. I used a powerful spell. I’m not sure how long he’ll be out.”</p><p>Sabrina felt nauseous. She wanted to hold him, comfort him.</p><p>“I’ll stay with him,” she told Prudence. “I won’t leave his side.”</p><p>She planned to never leave his side again.</p><p>“He may be a bit frantic when he awakens,” Prudence warned.</p><p>“I expect as much,” Sabrina said as she settled on the edge of his bed. “Thank you, Prudence. For watching over him. Saving him.”</p><p>Prudence gave her a sad smile.</p><p>“It’s always been you, Sabrina,” she shared. “You have always been it for him.”</p><p>“He’s it for me,” Sabrina assured Prudence. “Forevermore.”</p><p>“I’ll leave the pair of you,” the older witch said. She turned to leave.</p><p>“Prudence?” Prudence turned back to Sabrina and raised an eyebrow. “Will you find Ambrose? Bring him home?”</p><p>Prudence understood what she was asking. Find Ambrose. Bring him home. But also – heal their relationship.</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>When Sabrina was finally alone with Nick, she ran a soft hand through his curls. He liked that, liked the comfort it brought him. He had never said as much, but she knew from the way he leaned into it, the way he sighed in contentment.</p><p>“I’m here,” she whispered to him. “I’ll be here when you wake.”</p><p>She stayed right there, holding his hand and waiting, watching over him as he slept off Prudence’s spell. His grief was palpable. She could feel his heartbreak in her very soul. She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead and then his cheek, doing her best to alleviate it as he slept.</p><p>More than an hour passed.</p><p>“Sabrina?”</p><p>Zelda was in the doorway. She took a cautious couple of steps into Nick’s bedroom having came to see what was holding Sabrina up, to make sure she was still among the living, that it hadn’t been a dream or a bad joke or another temporary return of the dead.</p><p>“He tried to end his life,” Sabrina answered. Her voice cracked and a few tears breeched their dam. “Prudence found him. He went for a swim in the Sea of Sorrows and got caught by the undertow.”</p><p>“Oh Nicholas,” Zelda sighed. “He wasn’t okay without you, Sabrina. None of us were.” Zelda came to stand next to his bed and looked down at the young couple before her. Sabrina radiated love for the boy and even in his sleep, she thought she could sense Nick’s very soul recognizing that Sabrina was near. The pair had lived a life far too hard to be so young. She prayed Hecate was right, that they would have peace now, be allowed the happiness that seemed to only come to them in fleeting moments so far. “He’s made his mistakes, hasn’t he?”</p><p>“We all have,” Sabrina nodded, her hand holding Nick’s still tighter. She longed for him to wake up, for the spell to wear off. She needed to feel him squeeze back. She needed to be in his arms.</p><p>“Hilda is right. He loves you so very much.” Zelda kissed the crown of Sabrina’s head. She wasn’t known for outward displays of affection, but her niece come back from the dead was of a different circumstance. “We all do.” She let her hand rest on the warlock’s shoulder for just a moment in an even more uncharacteristic show of affection for someone that wasn’t a Spellman. “The pair of you come back to the mortuary when he’s awake. We should all be together tonight.”</p><p>“Ambrose?” she questioned.</p><p>“I’ve sent word and Prudence has gone in search,” Zelda confirmed.</p><p>She left Sabrina and Nick again and Sabrina once more returned her full attention to Nick.</p><p>“Wake up for me, Scratch,” she encouraged. “I’m going to kiss you senseless, and then I’m going to ream you out for daring to try to hurt yourself.”</p><p>She shuddered as she thought of Nick stepping through that painting, of the crushing blow it would have been to come back to this realm, only to find him gone from it. She closed her eyes and shook her head. She couldn’t dare think about that. It hurt too much.</p><p>More time passed. She attempted to lift the spell, to wake him gently. He slept on, and she had a feeling his body needed it. Already, the physical toll her absence had taken on him was evident. He was a bit thinner, paler. Grief seemed permanently etched into his features. She prayed to Hecate that would fade when he woke.</p><p>It felt like eternity before a soft groan emitted from him.</p><p>“Nick?”</p><p>His eyes blinked open far too slowly for her liking. Her smile was brilliant when his gaze met hers, even as her eyes clouded with tears. He, however, frowned deeply.</p><p>“Sabrina?”</p><p>“It’s me,” she confirmed. She blinked away her tears. “I’m here, Nick. Hecate brought me back.”</p><p>Nick pulled his hand away and sat up in a rush. He moved away from her, his eyes big and scared.</p><p>“No,” he shook his head. “No. This isn’t real. You’re gone… You died…”</p><p>Sabrina was patient. She had expected his disbelief.</p><p>“This is very real,” she assured him. “I’m here, Nick. I’m alive. I swear it…” She reached for him. He smacked her hand away and rushed to his feet.</p><p>“No!”</p><p>He was like a cornered wild animal as he stared at her, his chest heaving, his pupils blown wide.</p><p>“Nick…” She got to her feet, the bed between them.</p><p>“You’re dead,” he stated. “You died. You didn’t come back to me this time. This… This is a dream. A horrible, horrible dream. I’m going to wake up and I’m going to remember you’re dead and it’s going to wreck me all over again.”</p><p>Tears rolled down Sabrina’s cheeks. Nick thought he was dreaming. This was his version of a nightmare, to believe her alive and well, only to awaken and find her still gone. She would bet he had had that dream many times over in the last week.</p><p>“Nick, I promise, this isn’t a dream.” She took a couple of steps in his direction. He took a couple of steps away. “Hecate brought me back to this realm. She apologized for it taking so long to find me. I couldn’t go to Heaven or Hell. She had to search the realms.” She reached into her blouse and pulled out his necklace. “She used your necklace to find me. She said you were looking for me, that she followed your magic to me.” She shuddered as she fought back a sob. “She brought me back to you, Nick.”</p><p>Nick continued to stare at her. She saw it in his features, the desire to believe her, the protective stance that tried to shield him from a fresh round of heartbreak.</p><p>“It’s me, Scratch,” she said in a soft voice. “I promise, this isn’t a dream.”</p><p>Ever so slowly, Nick reached into his own rumpled shirt. He took out his necklace. With shaking words, he said the spell to find Sabrina. He expected it to fail, for nothing to happen, just like the dozens of times he had tried to find her in the last week.</p><p>Except this time, the necklace lit up.</p><p>So did hers.</p><p>The lockets pulled towards one another, recognizing their other half.</p><p>A gasp emitted from Nick as reality settled in.</p><p>“Sabrina…”</p><p>“Nick!”</p><p>Neither knew who moved to the other. All they knew was the feel of the other’s arms wrapping around them and holding on tight.</p><p>“It’s you,” Nick said through tears as the scent of her shampoo filled his nostrils. “It’s really you.”</p><p>“It’s really me.” She tightened her arms around his neck. “Oh my Hectate, Nick, this is really happening.”</p><p>“How?” he asked as he clung to her. “How are you here? I had to tell you goodbye, Sabrina…”</p><p>“Hecate said it wasn’t my time.” She would be telling this story over and over in the coming days. “She brought me back. She told me to live a good life, to be happy.” She somehow managed to hug him even tighter. “You don’t have to say goodbye again.”</p><p>Nick broke.</p><p>His sobs raked through his body as he clung to Sabrina. He had felt everything over the last week, experienced a grief so heavy and complete he didn’t know how to navigate it. But he hadn’t cried. Not a single tear. He had held his tears in, refused to allow them to fall because to him, crying meant acknowledging that she, the girl that was the light to his darkness, was gone and he couldn’t let that be true.</p><p>Now, his tears wouldn’t stop.</p><p>Sabrina cried too, taking on as much of his pain as she could, her own mixing with it. She didn’t let him go, tried to whisper soothing words through her sobs. They somehow ended up on the floor, wrapped around one another as Nick gradually pulled himself together. He looked at her in wonder.</p><p>“I can’t believe you’re here,” he breathed. Both of their eyes were bloodshot and swollen. Neither cared. “I missed you so much, Sabrina. I couldn’t… Not without you…”</p><p>“We’re going to talk about that,” she informed him. “The Sea of Sorrows. If I would have come back to find you gone…” She shuttered at the thought.</p><p>“You were gone,” he tried to explain. “And then I saw that statue and it felt so final…” He turned his head to press a kiss to Sabrina’s palm as she wiped away his tears. “I can’t survive in a world without you in it, Sabrina. I just can’t do it.”</p><p>“You won’t have to,” she promised him. She would bring up the Sea of Sorrows again, but not right now. Right now, she just needed to be with Nick. “I’m here and we’re together, Nick.”</p><p>He locked eyes with her. He couldn’t quite believe it, couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that his dead girlfriend had returned to him. Yet he knew it was true. She was there. He could feel her touch, breathe in her scent. His fingers could wind through her hair and pull her to him.</p><p>Their kiss was long and deep. When neither of them could breathe, they held on for a little longer until they finally had to break apart to gasp for air. A few fresh tears leaked down each of their cheeks as their foreheads rested against one another.</p><p>“I love you, Sabrina. I love you so much.”</p><p>“I know you do,” she assured him. “I love you too, Nick. More than I could ever imagine.”</p><p>“What about your aunts?” he asked. “Do they know…”</p><p>“They do,” she assured him. “Just them and you know for now. And, well, Prudence. She was with you when I came, watching over you.” Sabrina managed a sad smile. “I owe her for saving you.”</p><p>Nick looked ashamed.</p><p>“I was so low, Sabrina. Lower than low…”</p><p>“It’s okay,” she comforted him. “We can talk about it, when you’re ready.” She wouldn’t make the same mistake of rushing him again. “Grief is different for each of us and you went through something awful.” He leaned forward and let his head fall to her shoulder. She ran her hand through his hair again. His faint sigh of contentment made a smile appear on her lips.</p><p>They sat there for a while, a tangled mess of bodies, needing the connection to one another. It was Nick that finally sat up and broke their quiet moment.</p><p>“We should go back to the mortuary,” he determined. “I’m sure your aunts want you home.”</p><p>“Zelda came by when I didn’t come right back,” Sabrina nodded. “She asked us to come back to the mortuary when you were awake. I’m hopeful Ambrose will be back, too.”</p><p>“Hilda has probably prepared a welcome home feast to beat all feasts,” Nick tried to joke.</p><p>“It’s weird to think about eating,” Sabrina admitted. “I was dead and now I’m alive... “ She shook her head as she wrestled with the need to resume normal things like eating and sleeping when everything else felt so raw and intense. “Hilda tried to feed me before I came here, but I just wanted to get to you. I’ll admit to being a little hungry, though.”</p><p>“Let’s go feed you then,” Nick determined. She seemed fine, physically anyway, but he felt like he needed to take care of her, keep her close. He had no intention of letting her out of his sight anytime soon.</p><p>They got to their feet and Sabrina waited for Nick to change and wrestle his hair into something a little more tamed although still not as polished as he would be under normal circumstances. He took her hand and together, they wound back through the Academy. Sabrina was grateful they didn’t run into anyone. She wasn’t ready to return to the masses just yet. She wasn’t even ready to return to her friends. Right now, she just wanted her aunts, Ambrose, and Nick, the people that knew her the most intimately.</p><p>In the entry, Nick paused. She felt him tense as he took in her statue. She took matters into her own hands.</p><p>“That can’t stay there.”</p><p>She banished it, not much caring where it went. Nick’s response was to lean in and kiss her cheek.</p><p>They chose to walk back to the mortuary. Sabrina relished the fresh air, the cold, the feeling of Nick’s hand in hers. She was frigid by the time they arrived at the mortuary, but all thoughts of the low temperatures disappeared when she spotted Ambrose on the mortuary stairs.</p><p>“It’s true!” he gasped. “You’re alive!”</p><p>He rushed down the stairs. Nick released Sabrina so she could run to meet Ambrose. The cousins collided in a fierce hug. A fresh round of tears fell from both of them. Even Nick wiped away a tear as he took in their reunion. On the porch, Zelda and Hilda did the same.</p><p>“Oh Ambrose, I’m so glad to see you!” Sabrina breathed.</p><p>“When Prudence told me... And the aunts confirmed it…” He shook his head as he hugged her again. “Leave it to you to die and come back to life just as soon as the statue went in.” Sabrina had to chuckle.</p><p>“I sent it away,” she said. “We’ll need to get rid of the tombstone, too.”</p><p>“Zelda already did,” Ambrose revealed. Neither of them mentioned that Sabrina Morningstar’s was still there. There would be time for that later. “Come. Let’s go inside. Hilda has been cooking up a feast.” He kept his arm around her shoulders. Sabrina reached out a hand to Nick. He took it and the two warlocks escorted her towards the house.</p><p>“It’s freezing out,” Hilda greeted them. “Inside, the lot of you.” She extracted Sabrina from Ambrose and Nick and guided her through the door. Nick made to follow, but Ambrose stopped him.</p><p>“You okay, mate?” he asked. “Prudence told me…”</p><p>“I’m not sure if okay is the right word,” Nick admitted. He glanced after Sabrina. He was afraid to let her out of his sight, lest she disappear again. “But I will be.” He managed a rueful smile. “We all will.”</p><p>“We will,” Ambrose agreed.</p><p>“Where’s Prudence?” Nick wondered. He edged towards the door. Sabrina had disappeared with her aunts. He could hear her, knew she was there, but he needed his eyes on her.</p><p>“She went back to the Academy,” Ambrose answered. “She wanted to give the family – and you – some time with Sabrina.” Nick warmed at the idea that he was welcomed into the Spellman family’s reunion, but then again, they had enveloped him as theirs as they grappled with Sabrina’s loss. “She and I will connect later.”</p><p>“Good,” Nick approved. “It’s time.”</p><p>Ambrose clapped him on the shoulder and the pair went inside.</p><p>The mood was both joyful and somber as the Spellmans and Nick sat down to dinner. Cee joined them, startled mute at first when he walked into the kitchen after a day at the diner to find Sabrina there, and it was another beautiful reunion for Sabrina who had held a soft spot for Cee long before Hilda became a part of his life. They spent the evening gathered in the living room, just being together. Sabrina leaned into Nick, his arm around her the entire time. Her eyes started to grow heavy as the hour became late.</p><p>“Tired?” Nick asked softly. Sabrina nodded and tried to snuggle closer.</p><p>“Take her upstairs, Nicholas,” Zelda directed. “She deserves a good night’s sleep.”</p><p>There was a long round of goodnights before she and Nick were finally in the safety of her bedroom. She took several steps in, taking in the space as if seeing it for the first time, while Nick shut the door behind them. When she turned back to him, there were tears in her eyes.</p><p>“Sabrina?” he questioned.</p><p>“I died,” she managed as everything finally caught up with her. “I left all of you…”</p><p>Nick was there. He brought her into his arms and soothed her with his hand rubbing her back.</p><p>“You died,” he agreed. “But you’re back, Sabrina.” He kissed her hair. “Honestly? I’m still terrified I’m going to wake up and this is going to be a dream.” His embrace tightened. “I’m afraid it’s going to be like when I woke up from housing the Dark Lord and had that beautiful moment of safety, of being with you, only for the other shoe to drop.”</p><p>Sabrina pulled away only enough to look up at him.</p><p>“It’s not going to be like that this time,” she promised him. “Hecate showed me a few glimpses of the future on the way back. We’re going to be happy, Nick. You and me. We’re going to go to prom, graduate high school, go to college where we’ll live together, get married, have kids…”</p><p>“We’re going to have kids?” he asked with a hint of his mischievous grin.</p><p>“She showed me us, down the road. We had aged just a bit. You were holding a little boy’s hand, and I had an infant girl.” She smiled. “He looked just like you.”</p><p>“He was handsome then.”</p><p>Sabrina laughed and Nick’s heart soared.</p><p>“That’s the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard,” he declared. ”I will do anything Hecate requires of me for bringing you back to me, to us.”</p><p>“She only wants our loyalty,” Sabrina told him. “She wants us to honor her and live well. She’s not like the Dark Lord, Nick. She doesn’t demand darkness.”</p><p>“She sees the light you bring to this world,” Nick replied. He leaned in and kissed her. “Let’s get you into bed.”</p><p>“You’re staying, right?” she asked in a moment of weakness. The thought of sleeping without him that night overwhelmed her.</p><p>“You’d be hard pressed to get me to leave,” Nick confirmed. He placed a kiss to her hair and the pair went about stripping off their clothes, Nick down to his boxer briefs, Sabrina to her bra and panties. Sabrina emitted an audible sigh of relief once she was between her sheets.</p><p>“This feels amazing,” she breathed as she settled onto his chest. His arms wrapped around her and he pressed still another kiss to the top of her head.</p><p>“You have no idea,” he replied.</p><p>They lay in peaceful silence for a while, Nick’s fingers brushing up and down her back. He focused on her soft puffs of breath against his chest. It confirmed to him that she was really and truly alive.</p><p>“Sabrina?” he asked the darkness.</p><p>“Hmm?” she hummed.</p><p>“Promise me you will still be here in the morning?”</p><p>Her heart broke for him as she listened to the pain and fear in his voice.</p><p>“I promise.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I’ll be here tonight, tomorrow morning, tomorrow night, the morning after that and the one after that, on and on. We’re going to be together and happy, Nick. I promise.”</p><p>“I love you,” he said. “I didn’t say it enough before. I’m going to make sure I say it often now that I have another chance.” His lips brushed her temple. “It was one of the only thoughts I had, both while you were dead and while you were with Blackwood, that I didn’t tell you how I felt often enough.”</p><p>“I love you too, Nick.” She kissed his lips. “And I thought about that a lot too – that I didn’t get to tell you how much I love you just one more time before I left you.” She snuggled closer. “I want to live my life different this time. I want to really be in the moment, tell people how I feel, what they mean to me.”</p><p>“Where were you?” Nick asked with a tentative note. “Where did you go when you… died?”</p><p>“A place called the Sweet Hereafter,” Sabrina shared. “There was a lot of white. Everything was white. But there was artwork. And books. It was a bit like The Void but more peaceful. I was alone with my thoughts and I tried so hard not to think about you, my family, my friends. It hurt too much.”</p><p>“Hecate brought you back,” he said as though trying to convince himself as much as her. “You’re here, in my arms.” His embrace tightened. “I’m not letting you go.”</p><p>“Please don’t,” she nearly begged. They kept trading places, one reassuring the other that this was real, that Sabrina had been brought back to life, that she would still be there in the morning. They likely would for several days to come, until they were both certain she wasn’t leaving this realm again.</p><p>“I won’t,” he promised her. “I have you.”</p><p>They didn’t speak again, and Sabrina fell asleep soon after. Nick, however, laid awake for a long time. He let silent tears roll down his cheeks as he repeatedly thanked Hecate for bringing Sabrina back to him, for the miracle that was the girl asleep on his chest.</p><p>When he finally fell asleep, he was at peace.</p><hr/><p>Sabrina awoke slowly.</p><p>She was wrapped in Nick’s arms, her back to his chest, his breath soft on her shoulder. She sighed in contentment and felt him press his lips to the nape of her neck. He was awake. She smiled and rolled over so she could face him.</p><p>“Good morning.”</p><p>“Morning, Spellman,” he replied in that sleepy voice of his she loved so much. “It really wasn’t a dream.”</p><p>“It really wasn’t,” Sabrina confirmed. She accepted his kiss. “How did you sleep?”</p><p>“Okay,” he nodded. “It took me a while to fall asleep, but I slept well enough once I did.” She thought he still looked tired, but she would give it a day or two before she worried. They had all been through so much. A lack of sleep was a given. He brushed her hair back. “What about you?”</p><p>“I slept well,” Sabrina confessed. “I was in my own bed, in my home, in your arms. There’s no better place to be.” It was the first good night’s sleep she’d had in a long time.</p><p>Nick leaned in to kiss her again. She kissed him back, deepening the connection while her hand trailed down his bare chest. He pulled her closer and she felt him against her hip. His own hand ran down her back and cupped her ass.</p><p>In an instant, she wanted him.</p><p>She had only been with him once, had hoped – tried – to be with him again, had thought surely her birthday night would allow it.</p><p>Instead, she had died.</p><p>She was very much alive now, however.</p><p>“Nick,” she breathed against his lips. “Make love to me.”</p><p>He pulled away to look into her eyes. All he saw there was love. Want. Desire.</p><p>“Are you sure?” he asked anyway.</p><p>“Please,” Sabrina nodded. They were already down to nothing but their underwear. She didn’t want anything between them at all. “I need to feel you, Nick.” Her fingertips brushed over his cheek. “I think you need to feel me, too.”</p><p>She had read him correctly. He needed the connection to help him process the fact that he had her back, to show her what she meant to him when words failed him.</p><p>Nick’s hand found her bra strap and unhooked it as his lips went to work along her neck. She tilted her head to give him better access. She gasped when he bit down, sighed as he licked away the sting. Her temperature rose as he descended her body. She felt alive. Really and truly alive.</p><p>“My girl,” he sighed at her hip. His fingertips brushed over her the elastic of her panties. “Can I take these off?”</p><p>Sabrina’s answer was to lift her hips.</p><p>Nick removed the flimsy fabric, then kissed his way up her leg. After everything they had been through, he was Heaven bent on kissing every part of her.</p><p>Sabrina’s gasp filled the air when his lips landed between her legs. He pulled away, but only enough to utter a privacy spell. He wanted no restraints. He thought there would be a time, likely soon, in which Sabrina would want to call the shots when they were together, but for now, he was happy to lead the way, to show her how good he could make her feel.</p><p>“My Hecate,” Sabrina breathed as his tongue returned to her center. She buried a hand in his hair, clutched the sheets with the other. His fingers met no resistance when they slid inside her. He used his other arm to lay over her hips and hold her steady. He nipped the inside of her thigh. That earned him a tug of his hair which brought a pleased groan from him. “Nick!”</p><p>She unraveled. He kept going until her orgasm waned, then stalked up her body. He pressed his lips to hers and she was hungry in her response. It didn’t make her feel odd to taste herself on his lips the way it had their first time. It only made her want him more. She reached into his briefs and he jerked against her touch.</p><p>“Out of these,” she breathed, pushing at his underwear. He helped her take them off and allowed her only a few strokes before he couldn’t stand it any longer.</p><p>“I need to be inside you, Spellman,” he all but begged. “Please.”</p><p>“Please,” she echoed.</p><p>Nick thought to say the contraception spell before he moved over her. Sabrina bent her knees to open herself to him. Unlike her first time, the nerves weren’t there. She felt quite confident as Nick positioned himself. The tense nervousness wasn’t there either as his head passed through her folds. She was just eager for him.</p><p>Nick groaned as he sunk into her.</p><p>“You are everything,” he told her as he slid deeper. “Everything.”</p><p>He rocked his hips against hers, thrusting slow, aware that despite how much easier things felt this time, this was still new to her. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and dug her nails in.</p><p>It was a little messy and uncoordinated at first as she worked to catch his rhythm. But then their bodies synched, and it was everything she thought sex should be. Their first time had been a lot of fumbling, a lot of stopping and starting as both nerves and anticipation got in their way. This was different. This was absolute love and devotion, a sharing of their bodies in a way that they both understood was, from this point forward, the way things would be from now on.</p><p>Nick could feel his own release building. He thought Sabrina was close and wanted her to come on him. He paused with himself fully sheathed.</p><p>“Wrap your legs around me,” he whispered against her lips. She didn’t hesitate to follow his request as she chased his lips with her own. He was mindful as he turned them over, putting her on top. She looked surprised at the change in position. “I want to look at you,” he told her as a hand trailed down her chest. “Trust your body, Sabrina. It knows what to do.”</p><p>Sabrina was tentative at first, experimenting with the new position. He went deeper this way and the angle touched a different part of her. But as she moved, she began to feel a whole new source of pleasure. She closed her eyes as she moved and rested her hands on his chest for leverage. Nick met her thrusts and the sounds of pleasure he emitted gave her a sense of power that had nothing to do with the magic in her veins.</p><p>“Spellman,” he breathed. “You feel so good.” He lifted himself up onto an elbow and wrapped an arm around her waist to deepen the connection even more. “You’re close,” he huffed. “I can feel it.” He quickened the pace. “Come for me, Spellman.”</p><p>His words sent her over the edge. Her release came in powerful waves. She called his name and cried out as her orgasm seemed to hold onto her. Nick helped her through it, sitting up completely and muttering words to her that only served to prolong it.</p><p>“Nick…” She breathed when she finally came down. “Wow…” He chuckled into the curve of her neck and dropped a kiss to collarbone. She moved in his lap a bit. “Your turn.” She ran both hands through his hair and kissed his mouth. “Take what you need.”</p><p>A shiver went through Nick at her words.</p><p>“Sabrina…”</p><p>She heard his fears. He was so careful with her when it came to intimacy and she thought that was going to be a more prominent hurdle for them in the coming weeks as they truly adjusted to being together, this time without any threat of the world ending. There hadn’t been time to address a lot of the past hurt between them and Sabrina knew they needed to, needed to talk about her death and his suicide attempt, too.</p><p>But not right now.</p><p>Right now, she wanted to give herself to Nick the way had given himself to her.</p><p>“I trust you, Nick,” she told him. “I feel it in you. You’re wound tight, need to erupt. Stop holding back. Stop being afraid of hurting me. You’re not going to hurt me, and I promise I’m not going to disappear.” She kissed him deeply, then rested her forehead against his. “I trust you with my heart.” She kissed him again. “I trust you with my life.” Another kiss. “I trust you with my body.” Another kiss. “Take what you need.”</p><p>“I need you,” Nick said in a raspy voice. “You, Spellman.”</p><p>Her hands trailed down his chest.</p><p>“Then take me.”</p><p>Nick’s arms were still around her. He tightened one around her waist and then slid the other up her back to lock his hand around her shoulder.</p><p>“I’ll never be able to explain how much I love you,” he breathed. “Thank you for coming back to me.”</p><p>He wasn’t a brute, but he wasn’t gentle either as he let his body have Sabrina the way he needed her right then. His hips pivoted in at a rapid pace as he assaulted her neck and shoulder with kisses and nips.</p><p>“Nick,” she groaned. “Yes!” She loved how it felt, him being less gentle, more aggressive. She wanted more of that in the future. “Come, Nick. Come!”</p><p>Her body accepted everything he had to offer, contracting around him as another less intense orgasm worked through her as a result of his. They were both a sweaty mess when they came down, still wrapped around one another.</p><p>“You’re okay?” he asked as they held one another. “I wasn’t too rough?”</p><p>“I’m brilliant,” Sabrina said with absolute honesty. She blushed a bit. “I liked that, Nick. Being together, being on top, the rougher pace at the end.” She brushed a sweaty curl from his forehead. “I’m looking forward to more of that.”</p><p>His smile was so soft and full of love that she wanted to stay right there with him in that moment forever.</p><p>“We’re going to have plenty of time to learn each other’s bodies,” he assured her as a hand followed the curve of her hip. “I quite liked the view with you on top.”</p><p>“Maybe we’ll try something new later…” she hinted.</p><p>“Oh I can almost guarantee we will.” He kissed her nose. “I’ve had fantasies about taking you from behind since I met you.” Sabrina tossed the blankets back. Nick frowned. “Wait, where are you going…”</p><p>“To shower,” she informed Nick with a playful glint in her eyes. “If I stay in bed with you talking like that, I will never get out of it and I’m pretty sure there will be blueberry pancakes waiting for us this morning.” She made it to her bathroom door before she stopped again and turned back to Nick. He looked completely wrecked in the best way. “Feel free to join me.”</p><p>Nick got to his feet and hurried after her, Sabrina’s giggles filling the air as she dashed into the bathroom. It was what she hoped would be the first of many, many light moments between the them.</p><p>Forty-five minutes later, the pair emerged in the Spellman kitchen, their hands linked.</p><p>“Good morning, lovelies,” Hilda greeted as she poured coffee for Cee. “Sleep well?”</p><p>“Perfectly,” Sabrina confirmed.</p><p>“I bet you did,” Ambrose commented from his seat at the table. Sabrina smacked his shoulder as she passed him. He chuckled into his coffee cup. “So good to have you alive and well, cousin.”</p><p>“A sentiment we’ll all second,” Zelda said. “Have a seat you two. Hilda has made enough for an army.”</p><p>Nick pulled Sabrina’s chair out and then settled next to her. He leaned over and kissed her cheek, just because he could. She smiled back at him and reached over to squeeze his thigh.</p><p>“Precious,” Ambrose commented. Sabrina rolled her eyes.</p><p>“Here you go, love!”</p><p>Hilda placed a cake in front of Sabrina, complete with seventeen burning candles. Sabrina’s eyebrows shot up.</p><p>“What’s this?” she asked.</p><p>“We didn’t get to celebrate your birthday properly, did we?” Hilda asked. Cee took her hand and squeezed it in a show of love and comfort. “You didn’t even get to blow out your candles. I thought it might be nice to have a little do over, have cake for breakfast. I made your pancakes, too. Bacon and eggs as well.”</p><p>Sabrina was overcome.</p><p>“You did all of this?” she questioned. “For me?”</p><p>“It was Ambrose’s idea,” Zelda spoke up. “The cake, at least. I thought we might perhaps have your friends over for another attempt at a birthday party in a few days, once things have settled down a bit.”</p><p>“I’d love that,” Sabrina managed.</p><p>“Happy birthday to you,” Ambrose began. “Happy birthday to you…”</p><p>Her aunts, Cee, and Nick joined in. Sabrina tried to blink away her tears, but they fell anyway as sheer gratitude flooded her. She got to be here. She got to be with her family, with Nick. It was the single greatest gift she had ever received.</p><p>“Go on,” Nick encouraged her as he dropped an arm around her shoulders once the singing stopped and she continued to look around the table, taking each of them in. “Make a wish.”</p><p>Sabrina closed her eyes, but she didn’t make a wish. She had everything she could wish for. She thanked Hecate instead, opened her eyes, and blew out her candles while the other cheered.</p><p>Breakfast was a jovial affair. Hilda stuffed them full with first cake then pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Sabrina blinked away tears several times as she ate and ate some more. She couldn’t believe this was real, that she was there. Nick brushed his lips across her cheek several more times throughout the meal while Ambrose teased her and Zelda tried to keep the peace while slipping Vinegar Tom bites from her plate and Cee regaled them with tales from the diner. Nick’s fingers were idly dancing along her thigh when Sabrina gasped.</p><p>“What?” he asked. “What is it?”</p><p>“Winter Solstice!” she stated. “We didn’t celebrate this year!” She jumped up from the table and hurried to the wall calendar to check the date. She had been The Void for six weeks, Blackwood intended to sacrifice her on Winter Solstice, and then she was dead for a week... “We missed Christmas, too! And New Year’s Eve is in two days!”</p><p>“There wasn’t much to celebrate,” Hilda reminded her solemnly. “But surely we can throw something together…”</p><p>“Thanksgiving, too!” Sabrina exclaimed. “I can’t believe I missed almost two months of my life…”</p><p>She was spiraling.</p><p>Nick got to his feet and went to her.</p><p>“Spellman, breathe.” He put his hands on her cheeks. His touch was like an instant balm. She felt herself calm from the inside out. “It’s been a Heaven of a few months. It’s going to take some time for everything to feel okay again. But everything is okay again. I promise you.” He smiled at her. “If you want to celebrate the holidays we’ve all let slide past, we will. From your birthday all the way through ringing in a new year.”</p><p>Sabrina melted into him. He hugged her to him, feeling the tension leave her body.</p><p>“Nicholas is right, love,” Hilda offered. “We’ll start with your birthday and go all the way through the change of the year. ‘Course, that means we’ll be feasting the next few nights.”</p><p>“I’ll even take care of decking the outside of this place with first our usual October pumpkins for your birthday, then I’ll do the biggest, brightest light display this town has ever seen right after,” Ambrose added.</p><p>“And I won’t complain once about having to celebrate mortal Christmas,” Zelda said. Sabrina snorted and looked at her aunt even as she rested against Nick.</p><p>“But it wouldn’t be the holidays without you complaining, Aunt Zelda.”</p><p>That brought a laugh from around the table.</p><p>“I think I can drum up a few fireworks,” Cee said, eager to contribute. “I know the lot of you can make them appear with a few words, but there’s just something so satisfying about lighting the wick yourself.”</p><p>“And as the one here who has never celebrated these mortal holidays and has spent the last however many Winter Solstices in the Unholy Lands, I’ll do whatever I’m told,” Nick decided. He kissed Sabrina’s hair. “But I have an idea for something we can do right now, Spellman.”</p><p>“What would that be?” she asked.</p><p>“You’re in the kitchen,” Ambrose piped up. “Public domain. Whatever it is, it better be PG. PG-13 at worst.” Sabrina glared. Nick smirked but ignored Ambrose.</p><p>“How about we go see your friends?” he proposed. “Let them know you’re back with us?”</p><p>Sabrina’s smile was bright.</p><p>“I’d like that,” she nodded. “Would you mind, Aunties?”</p><p>“Of course not,” Zelda said. “Go see your friends for a bit.”</p><p>“Have them come for dinner,” Hilda added. “We’ll continue with the birthday celebrations tonight. Ambrose? You’ll have to get started on those pumpkins…” Any thought of waiting a few days for things to settle was out the window now that the wheels were in motion. Nick tugged Sabrina’s hand and led her out of the kitchen to get their coats.</p><p>“He’s good with her, isn’t he?” Hilda said as she looked after them.</p><p>“He’s good for her,” Ambrose corrected.</p><p>“They’re good for one another,” Zelda accurately stated. “Now, about these celebrations…”</p><p>Outside, Sabrina and Nick set off down the road to Harvey’s, expecting to find the rest of the Fright Club in his garage. They walked close, hands interlocked.</p><p>“How are you doing?” Sabrina asked Nick.</p><p>“I’m brilliant, Spellman,” Nick said with a smile. “I’ve got my girlfriend back.”</p><p>“But yesterday… The Sea of Sorrows, me coming back, your fear that it wasn’t real… It was a lot.” She paused for a moment. “All of this is a lot.”</p><p>“It’s a lot,” Nick agreed. “There’s a part of me that still can’t quite believe, well, any of it, if I’m being honest. I meant what I said in the kitchen. It’s going to take us – all of us – a while to work through everything we’ve been through. But if I’ve learned nothing over the year or so I’ve known you, it’s that we can get through anything together. And by ‘we,’ I don’t just mean you and I, although I wouldn’t bet against us.” That made Sabrina smile. “I mean your aunts, Ambrose, Prudence, Agatha, the whole Fright Club, the coven. We can get through anything, Sabrina, so long as we’re all together.”</p><p>Sabrina stopped and turned to Nick.</p><p>“Who are you and what have you done with Nicholas Scratch?” she asked. Nick chuckled.</p><p>“I’m still him,” Nick promised her. “Just a heaven of a lot better version of him.” He lifted a hand to play with the locket around her neck. “You changed me, Spellman. I’ll love you forever.”</p><p>Sabrina kissed him, right there in the middle of the road. It was a long minute before they parted.</p><p>“I’ll love you forever and ever, Scratch,” she promised him.</p><p>They set off once more. When they reached Harvey’s garage, Nick went first. He tapped on the doorframe, then let himself in. He found Roz and Harvey on the couch, leaning on one another, Robin and Theo in a similar position in a nearby armchair. Their collective demeanor was dejected, defeated.</p><p>“Hey Scratch,” Harvey greeted. He sat up but didn’t move from Roz. “It’s good to see you.”</p><p>“Yeah, welcome,” Theo added. He knew he felt what they all felt – that they wanted to welcome Sabrina’s grieving boyfriend into their fold, offer him any comfort they could. “Come in, sit down.”</p><p>“How are you?” Roz asked. She made a face. “That’s a terrible question…”</p><p>“I’m better than I was yesterday,” Nick said. “And I think you guys are about to be too.”</p><p>He pushed open the door a bit more. Sabrina stepped through it, beaming.</p><p>For a moment, everyone stared.</p><p>“Hi guys,” she said, breaking the silence. She felt almost awkward as she stood there, the center of their attention. “Looks like I’m not dead after all.”</p><p>They rushed her at once. Nick laughed and stepped aside to let the group engulf her.</p><p>“How?” Harvey was asking.</p><p>“Is it really you?” Theo wanted to know even as he hugged her tight. “You’re really here?”</p><p>“I can’t believe it,” Robin repeated over and over.</p><p>“I had a vision,” Roz confessed as she hugged Sabrina from behind. “But I thought it was just wishful thinking, that there was no way…”</p><p>“Hecate brought me back,” Sabrina said. “It’s a long story and I’ll tell you all about it. Later.”</p><p>Theo caught Nick’s eye.</p><p>“What are you doing over there, Scratch?” he asked. He held out an arm. “Get in on this!”</p><p>Nick was almost bashful as he approached the group and let Theo and Roz pull him into their embrace that showed no signs of ending anytime soon. Sabrina caught his eye and winked at him. He chuckled and hugged Roz and Theo closer as Harvey gave him a nod of approval.</p><p>Nick was right, Sabrina thought.</p><p>They could get through anything.</p><p>Together.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If only it ended this way - or most any other way. </p><p>Thank you for reading my attempt to fix the mess episode 8 made. I know a bit about Hecate, but I don't know that she is really as kind and wonderful as I made her out to be, yet I just couldn't allow it to be otherwise. </p><p>Let me know what you thought! ❤️</p></blockquote></div></div>
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